George Reuss in Holland’s Directory

While progress has replaced many of Naperville’s earliest structures, not only does George Reuss’s business building still stand but so does his home. And both are fine monuments to his maxim that "industry and economy lead to wealth." 

Trained as a tailor, Reuss left Bavaria in 1854, remaining for a time in New York until moving west to St. Charles, Illinois. Mathias and Gertrude Krapf, a family he knew from back home, also settled in St. Charles, bringing with them their daughter who was an old school friend of George’s. In 1856, Reuss married Anna Maria Krapf, moved to Naperville, and started a store with “a Mr. Dollinger.” This is possibly Franz “Frank” Dollinger as he also lived in St. Charles for a time and was a member of Euclid Lodge, the Masonic organization in Naperville. The partnership didn’t last long, however, and they split up the stock to go their separate ways. 

Now in his twenties, Reuss operated a clothier’s shop which sold men’s furnishings and utilized his tailor training. His obituary states that while Reuss was “a stern man, he was eminently just and demanded much more of himself than he did of anyone else” and his business seems to have flourished. In the 1860s, Reuss hired local contractor, Levi Shafer, to erect a fine clothing shop on the corner of Washington and Jefferson. In addition to being a successful builder, Shafer is known for loaning his gun to Marcellus Jones who is said to have fired the first shot of the Battle of Gettysburg with it.  

Reuss’s good reputation and sturdy building impressed the farmers and townsfolk who were his customers and they started asking him to hold their money. So the clothier became a banker, launching the Bank of Naperville in 1886. Isaac Murray, brother to the Ruth that I wrote about in my first book, was vice president of the bank. 

George installed a vault and added another room and rebuilt the entrance with elegant red granite to better reflect the change from tailor to bank. These additions cost him $13,000, equivalent to $397,117 in today’s dollars, and the fancy entrance now opens into Zazú Salon.

Over the years, Reuss also served a few terms as town trustee and in 1880, he was president. But there were difficult times for the Reuss family as well. Of the nine children born to Anna Marie, five died in infancy and one before her fifth birthday. The three remaining children prospered, however, providing thirteen grandchildren between them. As an adult, son Joseph joined George in the banking business, as did son-in-law, Valentine Dieter. 

The younger men’s responsibilities, naturally, increased over time, particularly when George was felled by a series of strokes. After two years of being home-bound, George passed away in 1901.  His wife continued to live in Naperville until her death in 1907 and both are buried in Saints Peter and Paul Cemetery. 

During the late 1870s, George and Anna Marie had a beautiful home built in Naperville for their family to enjoy. It was designed to resemble the villas found in northern Italy, which was a popular trend during that era. The home of Willard Scott, who also ran a store and bank on Washington Street, is another fine example of Italianate architecture. 

The grand house was eventually split up into a six-flat, but it received a big make-over in the 1990s, returning it to its former glory as a single-family home. In 2013, North Central College purchased the beautiful building to house then-incoming President Troy Hammond and it remains the college president's home today. 

H.C. Daniels & Son in Holland’s Directory

At the time when Holland’s Business Directory was published in 1886, Dr. Hamilton Daniels and his son William operated a drug store on Washington Street. This was about where Tapville Social now sits, although the building was replaced by the Frederick Kailer Block in 1897. 

On the Sanborn Map, you can see a structure labeled “Drugs” next to a structure labled “Print’g.” Elsewhere in the Directory Daniels elaborates: “It is located on the east side of Washington street, south of Jefferson avenue, next to the Clarion office,” which no doubt refers to the “Print’g.” Naperville, at this time, was not yet using street numbers for identification.

Dr. Daniels was a graduate of Rush Medical College of Chicago, served as coroner for twenty-five years, and also treated patients in an office at his Greek Revival home on Washington Street. That house was moved to Naper Settlement in 1974, although it isn’t historically restored or open for visitors. 

This Washington Street drugstore was Dr. Daniels second shop. The first, on Jefferson where Ted’s Montana Grill used to be, he operated with druggist Frank Morse. They sold that store to Dr. John A. Bell and pharmacist William Wallace Wickel. Wickel’s daughter and son-in-law took over the business and passed it along a few generations to become the Oswald and Anderson business empires. 

Dr. Daniels and his first wife, Laura, had five children, but she died of typhoid fever in 1952 at the age of 31. Their last baby, also named Laura, died the following summer. 

A fellow Naperville physician, Dr. Erastus George Hough, fell ill with cholera and died in 1849. He was only 25 and left behind a young wife and a little daughter. His widow Caroline and Dr. Daniels married in 1953 and went on to have seven more children together. 

While several of the Daniels boys went into the pharmacy business, it was one of Caroline’s boys who is the “Son” in “H.C. Daniels & Son.” William started as a drug clerk at age seventeen and at the time of the Directory publication, he would have been about twenty-four years old. In the description of the business, it says: 

"The store is principally managed by the son, whose eight years’ experience and study have made him very proficient, while the fact that he is a native of the village has given him a large acquaintance and many friends, hundreds of whom are constant customers."

After this time, however, William becomes difficult to trace. He lived for a time in Oak Park, Illinois and was married in 1893 to Amanda Solfisberg (sic) in Kane County. When the Biographical Record of Kane County, Illinois was published in 1898, then entry for Jacob Salfisberg (sic) says his daughter “Amanda, wife of W.C. Daniels, by whom she has one child, Viola May now resides at South Evanston, Illinois.” Jacob died in 1921 and his obituary puts his daughter, Mrs. W.C. Daniels, in Great Falls, Montana. Figuring out where William and his family traveled continues!

Dr. Hamilton Daniels, however, stayed in Naperville. He died in 1897 at the age of seventy-six and he is buried in the Naperville Cemetery along with both of his wives and several of his children. 

Naperville 1920 Flashback: Cornerstone Day

Naperville’s North Central College has not always been called North Central nor has it always been in Naperville. The Evangelical Association of America founded Plainfield College in 1861 with the idea of “uniting a liberal arts education with religious teaching”* and offered a coeducational program from the very beginning. By 1864, the school’s name was changed from Plainfield to North-Western College in the hopes of attracting a more regional student body.

After weathering the Civil War, the college’s administration considered further plans for growth. The college was located right downtown, near modern-day Route 59, but Plainfield was not then reachable by railroad and the administrators concluded they would do better in a railroad town.

After much research into various nearby towns and several deal-making discussions, North-Western College decided on Naperville which offered both land and money towards a new building. The cornerstone for Old Main was laid on May 17, 1870, and with extensive work, was completed in time for dedication by October 4 and the fall semester.

Cornerstone Day was especially celebratory in May of 1920 when the school celebrated the 50th anniversary of its move to Naperville. A few years later in 1926, the college’s name was changed once more, this time to “North Central” in order to avoid confusion with some college located in Evanston.

NCC continues to flourish, adding new buildings to the campus and new educational opportunities to the curriculum. For years, the college welcomed the entire community to a Cornerstone Day picnic in May, but the event was replaced with an awards reception in 2019 and then retired entirely. Even though no celebration was planned for 2020 and COVID-19 would have cancelled it anyhow, this year is a particularly special anniversary, so Happy 150th Cornerstone Day Anniversary, North Central College!

*A Time for Remembrance: History of 125 years of First Evangelical United Brethren Church, Naperville, Illinois

Naperville 1920 / 2020 - Setting the Stage

According to contemporary reports, a wild winter storm greeted the new year as 1920 dawned in Illinois. The President was Woodrow Wilson. The Governor was Frank Lowden. With World War I wrapping up, the nation was intending to go back to normal, but normal was anything but in the 1920s.

WWI ended in November of 1928, but the Treaty of Versailles didn't actually take effect until January 10, 1920. The last soldiers were coming home from overseas, having experienced more of the world than their parents or grandparents ever had. Many of the women who had filled in for their menfolk were reluctant to take off their trousers, put their dresses back on and return to the kitchen. Patriotism was high across the nation.

But patriotism was morphing into a nationalism that sowed suspicion. The rise of communism, socialism and fascism in Europe raised fears in the U.S. The first "Red Scare" raids in November 1919 and January 1920 were to oust leftist leaders and political and labor radicals. Immigrants were looked at differently and there were calls to close the borders to immigration. The Ku Klux Klan, once a Confederate social club, adopted an "Americanism" creed that embraced intolerance not only for immigrants, but also for blacks, Catholics, Jews and various practices they deemed "immoral."

So what was it like during this time in little Naperville?
Naperville was incorporated as a city in 1890 and by 1912 was a commission form of government with a mayor and several commissioners instead of aldermen and wards. Mayor Charles B. Bowman was a professor at North-Western College (later renamed North Central College). His commissioners were Alexander Grush (who owned a meat market), Robert Enck (who was in coal supply), Charles Rohr (who was a florist), and C.C. Coleman (who was a druggist.)

The men met at the "new" city hall after moving from their location above the jail and firehouse which was located about where the Apple Store is on Jefferson. The local Masons had just built a new building in 1916 (the Naperville Running Company building) and had moved out of their rooms above the First National Bank. That building, now La Sorella di Francesca, became the new city hall.

Naperville's quarries were no longer being worked, so the main employer in town was the Kroehler Manufacturing Company, renamed in 1915 as the Naperville Lounge Company started incorporating other factories.

While Edward Hospital doesn't look anything like it did in 1920, it did exist as a popular Sanitarium. The YMCA, which does still boast its original building, had been completed in 1911 and even allowed women to use the facilities at certain times of the week. Another landmark from the 1920s that still exists in some form today is Nichols Library, which was built in 1898.

George Santayana said "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it" while Mark Twain is supposed to have replied "History doesn't repeat itself, but it does rhyme." Comparing 1920 to 2020 is certainly an interesting exercise that may be useful as well!

Naperville Art: Naperville Loves a Parade

On the west side of Main Street is an alley known as Rubin’s Way where the “Parade of the Century” goes by on one side, watched by Naperville citizens on the other. Some faces in the painted crowd are familiar and some are just average folk, but they all are enjoying the parade. 

“Naperville Loves a Parade” was dedicated, appropriately enough, just after the Last Fling Labor Day Parade in 2014. 

Three artists, along with assistants, worked on this mural for four years. Adela Vystejnova, who created the “Parade of the Century” on the opposite wall as well, originally lived and studied art in the Czech Republic. Diosdado Mondero, who immigrated from the Philippines as a child, also painted the “Pillars of  the Community” mural on Main Street. Marianne Lisson Kuhn was born and raised in Naperville and worked on several Century Walk pieces including “The Way We Were” and “World’s Greatest Artist.”

 Over 300 faces appear in the crowd and many local landmarks and businesses are featured as well. To be included in the mural required a donation ranging from $600 to paint in your face and up to $5,000 to depict your business’s building. About $220,000 was raised through those donations.

There was also a contest to win a spot on the wall. Folks were asked to count how many times Greg Haldeman’s likeness appears in the crowd and Lynda Reilly submitted the winning answer. 

Current businesses such Casey’s Foods, Hotel Arista and Quigley’s Irish Pub are illustrated as well as some historic businesses like Bev Patterson’s Piano & Organ. 

Naperville’s high school mascots appear in the crowd and the old Nichols Library, Martin-Mitchell Manor from Naper Settlement and North Central’s Old Main are some of the landmarks visible in the background. 

The Lima Lima planes fly overhead and there’s even a version of Michaelangelo’s “Creation of Adam” in the clouds. You could spend a good deal of time finding all the little details and it would make a nice addition to your next downtown or Riverwalk stroll.

50 Years Ago — Summer Place Theatre

In 1966, North Central College started a  community theatre tradition. Enthusiastic drama students appealed to professor Don Shanower for opportunities beyond the school year. Shanower enlisted the help of part-time faculty member Don Jamison and together they launched Summer Place Theatre. 

Jamison’s career was at Western Electric Co. but he also founded amateur drama clubs and appeared in live WMAQ-TV productions. Teacher Shanower worked with student John Belushi at NCC and cast him in "A Thousand Clowns" in 1969, but Belushi was fired from his during rehearsals for chronic absenteeism.

Shanower got permission to use a storefront on Washington and Porter that once housed a Chevy dealer and SPT performed five shows that first season. 

For the next several years, productions were held under tents that were erected on the NCC campus. Torrential rainstorms in 1969 and again in 1973 destroyed the tents, as well as the shows being performed there.

Around the same time, the barn where props were stored was burned to the ground, but SPT still didn’t give up. 

A metal-roofed pavilion was built to replace the tent. Unfortunately, it was soon crushed by the Great Blizzard of 1979, but a second pavilion lasted for a decade. For many years, SPT hoped to raise enough money to erect a permanent home, but shows instead have been held at North Central High School.  

Competition is fierce today for people’s time and it’s hard to find both volunteers to prepare the shows and an audience to watch them, but tough little Summer Place Theatre is already looking forward to the next 50 years. See summerplacetheatre.org to learn more about this season’s  shows. 

Naperville’s All Zip-a-dee-do-dah in 1947

The Disney song was number two on the charts during 1947, emphasizing the buoyant mood of Naperville’s residents and Americans in general.

With World War II over, the soldiers were home, ready to jump back into their lives by going to school, getting jobs, finding spouses and settling down to raise babies.

Certainly there were bumps on the road. Housing was in short supply for all these  new young families. The Chicago Tribune regularly posted a list of suburban building permits which showed a huge increase in estimated value over the previous year as builders tried to keep up.

North Central College stopped accepting student enrollment when they reached capacity in June, with 175 students still on their waiting list.

New beginnings was a world-wide theme. Princess Elizabeth married the Duke of Edinburgh. India celebrated its independence and the United Nations moved Israel one step closer. Thor Heyerdahl finished his grand Kon-Tiki voyage and some weird reports were coming out of Roswell, New Mexico.

In Naperville, Mayor James Nichols was serving his fourth term in city hall. Mrs. Annie Merner Pfeiffer made the final donation from her family that included Pfeiffer and Kaufman Hall and Merner Fieldhouse, donations valued at $17 million in today’s money.

After years of “doing without” during the War, people were eager to go, do and spend!

Cars were huge and glamorous — when you could buy one. It took a while for manufacturing to catch up to the demand. Old-timers recall buying a new car sight-unseen after getting word that a local dealer was able to snag one from the manufacturer and hide it in a neighborhood garage.

The Naperville telephone book for 1947 had seven full pages of auto dealers, repair shops and service stations, more than any other trade.

All over America in 1947, people were humming “Zip-a-dee-doo-dah” and Naperville was humming right along.

A Last Look at Naperville in 1913

In closing out the 100th anniversary year of the Naperville Chamber of Commerce, let’s have one final review of our counterparts from one hundred years ago.

President Woodrow Wilson took office that year, officiating over the establishment of the Federal Reserve.

1913 also saw the inauguration of Income Tax, although the rate was only 1% after your first $4,000. And since the average annual income was $800, Income Tax didn't affect a lot of folks.

The average automobile cost $600, which seems cheap until you figure that took most of the average family’s annual income.

Only a little more than half of school-aged children actually attended school. But we suspect the things they learned at home were more useful to their adult lives than how to win at video games.

Charlie Chaplin was just beginning his movie career in 1913 and popular tunes included “When Irish Eyes Are Smiling.”

Closer to home, the DuPage County Farm Bureau was formed. Now there’s barely a farm to be found in DuPage.

In 1913, Illinois became the first state east of the Mississippi to allow women to vote in national elections. Today women not only vote, they are elected to serve.

1913 has been called by some “the long summer,” a pleasant moment before World War I progressed into the Great Depression and World War II.

What will people say about 2013 a hundred years from now? Will they remember it as a pleasant time or a difficult time?

Not that it matters much. This is the time we have to work with, so the only choice is to make the most of it!

Kiekhofer Hall, built in 1913 to serve as the Evangelical Theological Seminary, is now part of the North Central College campus.

Tradition of Education

To understand Naperville’s school system in 1913, the year the Chamber of Commerce was founded, we should really go back even further.

Education has always been important to Naperville citizens. Our first settlers arrived in July 1831 and established a school already by September. Twenty-two students were enrolled and a teacher, Lester Peet, was hired to teach them for $12 a month.

In 1870, Naperville set much higher goals and successfully wooed Plainfield College away from that town to become our North Central College.

In 1913, respect for education was a simply  a way of life. Naperville’s high school was accredited by the state and other institutions as “meeting or exceeding standards” to prepare students for college level study.

Ellsworth was the “East” side school while the Naper Academy served as the “West” side school. Ellsworth was named for Lewis, the first school commissioner and for Milton, the director of the district. The median teacher salary in this town of 3,500 residents was $760 a year.

Over one hundred high school students attended classes on the upper floors of the first Ellsworth school building, with younger grades taught below. High schoolers didn’t get their own building until it was opened in 1916 on the site of the current Washington Junior High.

Physical education was required of high school students, but in 1913 they didn’t have a gymnasium. Instead they took phys ed in the barely-two-years-old YMCA building on Washington Street.

Early Naperville College Days

North Central College celebrates its 150th Anniversary in November. Originally founded as Plainfield College by the regional Evangelical Association, the school moved to Naperville in 1870, attracted by access to the railroad and some funding deals by the city.

Women as well as men were both students and faculty, but there were limits to the college’s progressiveness.

Local young people in those first Naperville classes included Guy Ellis Sabin and Hattie Peaslee. Hattie’s father served as DuPage County Coroner and operated a store on Chicago Avenue in the building just to the east of the old red Rosebud building.

The following are some excerpts from Guy’s diary while he was attending North Central College:

February 28, 1871: Went up to the depot at 2 o’clock to give a letter to Fred. Pres. Smith was there; can’t tell what he will say, as it was in study hours; expect a lecture.

April 5, 1871: Commenced school today in earnest. Prof. gave us 8 pages in Geometry. Smith gave us a lesson in Virgil. My book cost $1.10. Paid for my scholarships this noon, $6.00. Fred B. gave Hattie a cigar. She said she would smoke it.

January 30, 1873: Mary was called up before the “faculty” today for going to a dance last week. They sent away Hattie Peaslee. Prof. Heidner came up this p.m. to see the folks. The Faculty is thinking of expelling her.

The Mary mentioned above was Guy’s sister and her diary completes his college career with this entry:

Next fall he went back to College and boarded at Ellsworth with Wallace Bush. We drove to Naperville first year after leaving, and attended commencement, and had a picnic at Butterfield Lake.

“Studious” Guy married fellow student, Nannie Sevier, but unfortunately was killed at age 35 while responding as a volunteer fireman. “Wild” Hattie settled down enough to marry W.E. Moore and helped him pursue his Regenerator Furnace patent.